Britain: Judge Rejects Libyan’s Rendition Case

A Libyan dissident, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, cannot pursue in a British court his “well founded” claim that he was unlawfully abducted in 2004 in a joint MI6-C.I.A. operation, and later tortured, because the case involved other countries and could damage Britain’s relations with the United States, a British high court judge ruled Friday. The judge, Peregrine Simon, ruled, “with hesitation,” that Mr. Belhaj could not sue MI6, the foreign intelligence service, and a former foreign secretary, Jack Straw, even though parliamentary oversight and police investigations were “not adequate substitutes” for a decision by a court. He dismissed the case, he said, because American, as well as British, officials were involved in the rendition of Mr. Belhaj and his pregnant wife to Libya in 2004 and agreed with the British government that a case in open court would harm its relations with Washington. Mr. Belhaj will appeal.